Tuesday, 31 March 2015

I've seen and worked on a lot of 1970 and newer Japanese acoustics. They are often one of my favourite guitars to work on as a good repair can virtually resurrect a guitar an owner would have deemed unusable.

That said, I've never seen or heard of Yamato. This is a great looking dreadnought with a cedar top and lovely looking rosewood back and sides.

At $250 Canadian this would likely make a great guitar for years to come.

Monday, 30 March 2015

This National guitar is in great shape for a 56 year old. I hope I can say the same about myself when I get to that age in a few scant years. And even better if I'm all original. ( Except the Kluson tuners )

This is a really great example of what Supro was doing in the late 50's. The seller boasts about the pickup and I believe him just based on the look of it.

Sunday, 29 March 2015

There is very little information in the listing for this Rayner guitar. Just a phone number. I thought perhaps it was a lazy seller, but found that there is not a lot of information about these guitars. My first thought was that it was a Kawai with a different name but in some searching i found that it was quite possibly built in Ireland by Statsford.

Can anyone confirm or deny this?

No matter the origins I love the look of this hollow-body beauty. I feel I've seen a similar shape in another guitar, but cannot quite place it.

To make it even more interesting, this particular guitar until recently belonged to Julian Cope. I'm pretty sure I've seen it played live at one of his shows that I've attended. The guitar was used on the recording of "Too Freud to Rock'n'Roll, Too Jung to Die" by Cope's power trio Brain Donor. However, the cover of that album features guitarist Doggen Foster holding a totally different doubleneck, namely a Mosrite.

Of course Cope is something of a doubleneck fan. I've seen him playing a customised Danelectrco with guitar and baritone necks, and of course he is the owner of The Beast, an unholy and unwieldy-looking customised Gibson non-reverse Thunderbird/Firebird combination.

Wednesday, 25 March 2015

This poor Gretsch Committee has been modified to allow reach to the higher frets. It does look like the job was well done at least. To see what it should look like check here for an unmolested version.

I do admit though that the offset nature does not bother me that much and if it would help with negotiating a cheaper price it would be possible to get a nice Gretsch solidbody at a deal.

Monday, 23 March 2015

When I started playing guitar as a teenager in the 80s we all had the "cheap" knockoffs of the guitars we thought we really wanted. I personally knew at least 8 players with Hondo guitars. They were all Les Paul and Stratocaster copies. I knew they made other models, especially those inspired by the decade, but never before have I seen a Hondo telecaster.

This made in Japan Hondo Deluxe 757 looks to be in great shape and I really like the lemony sunburst.

At $150 Canadian the only thing keeping me from this awesome copy is mere logistics as it's a few big provinces away from where i am.

Sunday, 22 March 2015

I have a love/hate relationship with Parker guitars. I've played a few of them and they have all played and sounded great. I love that they are inventive with design and were one of the first, I believe, to offer piezo acoustic sounds as a standard item on their guitars.

Now for the hate: I think they are ugly.

It's that plain and simple. Though i often love "ugly" or non-conventional designs almost wholly because of said ugliness, i cannot find love for the Parker.

This leather wrapped Parker P36 is no exception to the rule. It's almost as if they found a way to make it even less attractive to me. Luckily there are only 144 of these reptile-meets-bovine atrocities out there so I'll not likely be seeing one in real life.